‘Skyscraper’ Stefan Struve – who admitted an extra half inch has taken him to
7ft tall – meets Stipe Miocic in the heavyweight main event here on Saturday
night. He has not exactly been shouting from the rooftops, but the
24-year-old has espoused an attitude in his demeanour this week which
suggests that he believes maturity as a potential title contender has
enveloped him like a cloak.

Step forward, then, Miocic, a broad and genial man with the jaw, hands and heavy presence of a burly village blacksmith of yore. Even he, at 6ft 4ins tall, is dwarfed by the Dutchman. Get whacked by him, though, and Struve may dance to another tune.

Hew repre perfect foil, then, for the Dutchman – who started sparring with heavyweights a decade ago, aged 14 and already 6ft 4ins tall - to show his ettle. Miocic is unbeaten in nine fights himself. Should he deliver, he will move up the ladder himself.

“This fight won’t go the scheduled 5 rounds,” said UFC President Dana White. Both fighters nodded concurringly. “This is a big fight for the heavyweight division. The winner can make a statement in the heavyweight division.”

It may not be replete with a plethora of the most well-recited names in MMA, yet the UFC Nottingham card was rubber-stamped at the news conference as one of the most well-matched cards of the year.

“There are so many potential Fight of the Night contenders on the card, and that’s when you know a card is well-balanced and well-matched from top to bottom,” added White. “It’s awesome.”

One of those Fight of the Night contenders is the all-British welterweight battle between John Hathaway and John Maguire.

Also on the stacked television card, charismatic welterweight Dan “the Outlaw” Hardy fights in his historic hometown for the first time since April of 2008 when he takes on The Ultimate Fighter winner Amir Sadollah.

While much interest from the local crowd will focus on the ten British fighters on the card, Struve's performance will be watched with interest around the world.

The young mam who began his career in the UFC, aged 21, is made up at being the last man to walk to the Octagon on Saturday night, in his twelfth UFC contest. “It's awesome. It's a huge honour for me and I'm still growing and getting better.”

Struve insists he has not changed the rhythm of the way he trains, but has learnt from his losses to Junior Dos Santos – the current UFC heavyweight champion – Roy Nelson and Travis Browne. The last two losses, he believes, were from his own mistakes. Since then, he has won three fights on the bounce.

Arguably, Miocic could be a different proposition to his last three victims. He has much at stake, too. After three fights in the UFC - he is 9-0 overall in his career - Miocic is highly-regarded, yet could have taken other sporting career routes. He toyed with the idea of playing baseball after being a Collegiate stand-out, and also made the highest level as an NCAA Division 1 wrestler. Miocic is a bear of a man.

Miocic had started MMA when he decided to enter the Golden Gloves elite amateur boxing. He went upwards quickly. "I started having my first amateur fights, then I took time off just to box. I did the Cleveland golden gloves, the internationals and went to Salt Lake City for the nationals. I won two there and then a couple of boxing matches after that I wanted to get into MMA. I love MMA," he told Telegraph Sport.

"In Nottingham, I just want to get that 'W' no matter what, how long it takes, how fast it is doesn’t matter. I just want to get that 'W'."

Nothing too different has been employed by Struve in training for Miocic. Using his reach and range at 7ft is always going to be key in a division in which all the proponents have knockout power with their 4oz gloves.

“I pretty much prepare the same way for every fight; I try to improve on skill and get better. I started working with a couple of new coaches about a year and a half ago and it has improved my game immensely, in my opinion," Struve told Telegraph Sport.

“Two of those three fights I lost I was off balance, so we worked really hard on that and just worked the punches and kicks from a little further away. Learning to use my range - those things are really important.”

“We'll see how things go. If I win this fight I'll be on a 4-fight win streak and in the UFC people are going to keep an eye on you. I'll just see what happens. Again there's no rush in fighting for the belt, I just want to take it step by step and think that what we're doing right now is helping me get better and I just want to fight and beat better guys and work my way up to that belt. But I’m in no hurry. I may not even peak until I am 28 or 29, so there is always time.”

“It's a 5 rounder. If we go past the 3rd round, which I don't expect, it won’t be a problem. Multiple times a week we do, like, fifteen five minute rounds so that shouldn't be a problem.”

“Of course a fight is different but it shouldn't be a problem. I plan to finish the fight in the first or second round. I don't think this fight's going to last the full 5 rounds.